Easley Studio Destroyed

[KingLouieLouie]

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/_/id/7070300/whitestripes?pageid=rs.Home&pageregion=single1

Easley Studio Destroyed

Fire claims Memphis studio where White Stripes, Wilco, Buckley recorded


Memphis' Easley McCain Studio, where artists ranging from Jeff Buckley to Pavement to the White Stripes made seminal recordings, was destroyed in a fire Wednesday afternoon. Although the studio was in use at the time, no one was harmed.

"The inspector said that two fires broke out at the same time at opposite ends of the building, due to some electrical reason," says Easley engineer Kevin Cubbins. "Within fifteen, twenty seconds, the whole place was engulfed."

Co-founded by producers Doug Easley and Davis McCain in the early Nineties, the studio gave birth to Pavement's Wowee Zowee, Sonic Youth's Washing Machine, Wilco's debut A.M. and Cat Power's What Would the Community Think. In more recent years, Easley was home to the White Stripes' breakthrough White Blood Cells, Loretta Lynn's Grammy-winning Van Lear Rose and Modest Mouse's surprise hit Good News for People Who Love Bad News.

"It's unbelievable. Really, really sad," says Wilco bassist John Stirratt, whose previous band the Hilltops was one of the very first acts to record at Easley McCain. "If you tried to record in Memphis before Easley, you had to work with, well, born-agains. Easley was the first place to reflect how hip and weird and diverse Memphis really is -- the great, weird underbelly."

Buckley was recording his second album at the studio in 1997 when he went missing, only to be found a week later accidentally drowned in the Mississippi River. Those sessions were released on 1998's posthumous album Sketches (For My Sweetheart the Drunk).

The future of Easley McCain is unclear. "Insurance is looking into what happened," says Cubbins. "And we're just taking baby steps right now."


ALEX MAR
(Posted Mar 03, 2005)

Wow.. it had a "stellar" history in such a short time.....